The coronavirus and COVID-19 pandemic have significantly changed how most of us work. As the virus has spread worldwide, most governments have encouraged their citizens to stay home wherever possible, minimizing contact with others. For those who can work from home, this has meant a shift to remote work. Even though vaccines are being rolled out and many elements of life are returning to normal, many small business owners have found that remote work better suits them and their employees. From the employees’ perspective, working from home reduces commute time and costs and improves work-life balance.
From an employer’s perspective, having a remote workforce means saving money on office spaces and related overheads. So, it’s unsurprising that many small business owners want to stick with this remote working basis. Of course, you need to ensure you can still manage your team well while doing this. Here are some steps you can take to achieve this.
Continue Team Building
When staff work from home, losing touch with their colleagues and the broader company can be easy. You must ensure your staff maintains these communications and bonds, leading to increased collaboration and higher productivity levels. But how can you encourage team building within a remote workforce? Start by holding daily or weekly meetings between the team, where everyone can catch up and check in on each other. You may also want to maintain a day once a month or so where the team meets up in person, working from a hired venue, or meeting for social activities, like visiting a steakhouse for a meal.
Focus on Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity is a significant weakness for many companies with remote employees. Why? Because staff may need to be made aware of the threats they face when working from their internet connection off-site. Utilizing service providers like FRSecure and training your staff in cybersecurity minimizes risk and maximizes data security within your business. You can take several steps if you're trying to achieve this by yourself. There are several steps you can take to accomplish this. Still, some common ones include using a VPN (or “virtual private network”), encouraging staff to work from devices you provide, and offering training in cybersecurity.
Set KPIs
You don’t want to micromanage your staff while they work from home, but you also want to ensure they perform as expected. So, set KPIs. KPI stands for “key performance indicator” and will serve as a goal that your team members need to reach to show that they are working productively and efficiently. This will offer guidance and give you a means of checking in on staff performance.
Make Use Of Software
If you're running a business and have employees who work remotely, then you know it can be challenging to keep everything organized. There are a lot of different software options out there that can help you manage your remote team. With many different software options out there, it can be challenging to decide which is the best software for working remotely. It would be best if you considered what your needs are. What kind of tasks do your employees need to complete? What communication tools do you require? What tracking tools or reporting features would be helpful?
These are just a few suggestions that should help to get the ball rolling on managing a remote workforce. Hopefully, some will come in useful and you will experience success in your venture!
